More than 200 people attended a clinic to help find a bone marrow donor for an eight-year-old girl whose mother took the prime minister to task on live television.

They turned up at Alice Maddocks's school on Monday evening to donate blood in the hope of coming up with a cure for her condition, aplastic anaemia.

Just before the general election, Carol Maddocks challenged Tony Blair to do more to help find bone marrow donors.

In an unprecedented move, the National Blood Service agreed to lift restrictions for the clinic at Hanging Heaton junior and infants school near Batley, West Yorkshire.

The bone marrow registry is the best-kept secret in the National Blood Service Carol Maddocks

Blood from donors who were not already on the bone marrow registry was tested for suitability, avoiding the normal four to five-month waiting period.

The acting head of Alice's school, Craig Batley, distributed leaflets around the local area to urge people to attend the clinic.

Mrs Maddocks said: "Well over 200 people turned up at the school last night which was many more than we expected.

Community spirit

"After the recent events in Bradford - seeing how quickly a community can fall apart - it was great to see how quickly a community can come together.

"The clinic should have ended at 8.30pm but didn't finish until after 11pm. People were waiting for two hours or longer."

In their search for a suitable donor, Alice's parents have questioned the blood service's ruling that people cannot become bone marrow donors on their first visit.

Mrs Maddocks said: "We all know how to become a blood donor but people aren't aware of the registration process for bone marrow donation."

Alice's condition is so rare that the chances of finding a donor from the 177 people at the clinic who were eligible to give blood are very slim.

Mrs Maddocks continued: "We want people to realise that we're not just doing this for Alice.

Meeting PM

"We're doing it for the future and to raise awareness. It's about saving anybody's life.

"The bone marrow registry is the best-kept secret in the National Blood Service."

Two weeks ago, it emerged that previous clinics which Mr and Mrs Maddocks had helped to organise had found three potential donors for people on a national register.

Mr and Mrs Maddocks are to meet the prime minister at Downing Street later this month when they will press for changes to be made to the bone marrow registry.